Blum Signs 10-Year Deal With NBCUniversal

Jason Blum’s Blumhouse productions has signed a 10-year first-look deal with Universal Pictures. The agreement covers television projects for Universal Television and Universal Cable Productions.

Blum’s film franchises such as The Purge and Insidious are based at Universal’s Focus Features division.

“This studio has had an incredible experience working with Blumhouse and it only makes sense to broaden that partnership to NBCUniversal’s broadcast and cable networks,” said Jeff Shell, chairman, Universal Pictures. “Jason and his team bring an energy and focus that can be felt across the company and we are thrilled to honor his passion for entertainment with a long term commitment and extension of that relationship.”

Among Blum’s television projects is the forthcoming Ascension, for NBCUniversal network Syfy. Blum appeared on a panel for the show Monday at the TCA summer press tour and was asked about his approach to television projects and how it related to Ascension.

“My long term goal is to do very, very low budget television,” Blum said. “I’m newer to TV than I am to movies. So we’re starting out on a more traditional way. So this budget is a more traditional budget, but hopefully, I’ll be here in a couple of years, and I’ll be talking a very, very low budget series.